Open a markdown scratchpad on Mac with a keystroke

You’re in the middle of something and you need a place to jot a quick markdown snippet — a code block, a list, a draft message. Hunting through Spotlight or opening a full editor is overkill. You want a scratchpad that appears on a keystroke and disappears when you’re done.

Two paths

Native macOS. TextEdit can be set to plain-text mode (Preferences → New Document → Plain text), but it won’t render markdown — you’ll just see the raw asterisks and hashes. You can pin it to your Dock and use ⌘N after launching, but there’s no global hotkey to summon it from anywhere. Notes.app renders rich text but treats markdown as literal characters. Stickies is closest in spirit, but it has no markdown support and no system-wide hotkey either. To get a global summon shortcut from a native app, you’d need to wire one up in Shortcuts.app or Automator manually.

Scratch. Built around the single idea of a hotkey-summoned markdown pad. Press the shortcut from any app, type, press it again to dismiss. Markdown renders live as you type.

Set it up with Scratch

1. Install Scratch and open it once. The default global hotkey is ⌃⌥⌘S (Control-Option-Command-S).
2. Press ⌃⌥⌘S from anywhere on macOS. The Scratch window appears focused, cursor in the editor, ready to type.
3. Type markdown. Headings, lists, checkboxes, code fences and bold/italic render in place as you write.
4. Press ⌃⌥⌘S again (or hit Escape) to send it away. Everything autosaves — no save dialog, no "do you want to keep changes" prompt.
5. Want a different shortcut? Open Scratch Settings → General → Global Hotkey and record any combination that doesn't clash with a macOS system shortcut.

Why a dedicated hotkey wins

The whole point is friction-free capture. If summoning the pad takes more than one keystroke, you’ll stop reaching for it and reach for a sticky note instead. Scratch keeps the window state and the cursor position between summons, so re-opening lands you exactly where you were thinking last.